LUXEMBOURG– Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that North Korea shouldreturn to disarmament talks and avoid a path toward further internationalisolation. “The world has given them a way out and we hope they will take thatway out,” she said.
Rice’scomments came after North Korea stated explicitly that it has nuclear weaponsand said that it needs them as protection against an increasingly hostileUnited States.
“The NorthKoreans have been told by the president of the United States that the UnitedStates has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea,” Rice said duringa news conference here with European Union leaders.
“There is apath for the North Koreans that would put them in a more reasonablerelationship with the rest of the world,” she said, referring to aninternational disarmament effort that includes the United States.
Giving upnuclear weapons would offer hope for a better life to that country’s people,Rice said. North Korea is desperately poor, and people are fleeing the countryto avoid starvation.
The NorthKorean statement may be a bluff meant to put the United States back on itsheels before the regime finally does return to the disarmament table. NorthKorea told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation last month that it wouldreturn to those six-nation talks.
Asked toanalyze the thinking in Pyongyang, Rice was almost dismissive.
“I’m notsure anyone ever gets very far by trying to second-guess the motivation of theNorth Korean regime,” she said.
“The factis that we have for some time taken account of the capacity of the NorthKoreans to perhaps have a few nuclear weapons,” Rice said. “There’s nodefinitive _ I can’t go into the intelligence here _ but there’s no definitiveanswers of how many, but this has been since the mid-90s that the United Stateshas assumed that the North Koreans could make such steps.
Travelingwith Bush to North Carolina Thursday, White House press secretary ScottMcClellan told reporters, “It’s rhetoric we’ve heard before. We remaincommitted to the six-party talks. We remain committed to a peaceful diplomaticresolution to the nuclear issue with regards to North Korea.”
Rice saidthe United States isn’t treating North Korea differently from Iran, anothernation in President Bush’s famous rhetorical axis of evil.
“Themessage is clear: give up these aspirations for nuclear weapons and you knowlife can be different,” Rice said. She also said that is the same message thatLibya understood in renouncing its own nuclear ambitions.
UnlikeIran, North Korea had not been a frequent topic during Rice’s breakneck tour ofeight European countries and Israel over the past week. She also visited theWest Bank and the Vatican.
Rice usedthe trip to reach out to Europe, and Europe reached back.
It is toosoon to measure success, but Rice seemed pleased as she neared the end of thebreakneck tour.
The trip,Rice’s first as the top U.S. diplomat, engaged European leaders, intellectualsand curious citizens. Interest in her itinerary grew steadily as she made acase for a fresh start after rancor over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Iran’snuclear development program was a topic for most of Rice’s meetings withEuropean politicians.
“It’s beena really great conversation,” she said Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium. “I feelvery good about what we’ve done here and the conversation that we’ve had.”
Rice’s tripwas concluding Thursday in Luxembourg, which currently holds the rotating EuropeanUnion presidency, with meetings to lay groundwork for the Feb. 22 EU-U.S.summit in Brussels with Bush.
The 2003Iraq war divided the United States and longtime allies, and U.S. policies therecontinue to be widely unpopular even among Europeans whose governments, such asItaly and Poland, sent significant numbers of troops to Iraq.
“The timesare different now than they were a year ago or two years ago when we did haveour differences, not with everyone, but with a number of states,” Rice said inBelgium. “While we still had common interests and common values I don’t thinkwe had a common agenda for a while on what was really before us, at least inregards to Iraq.”
The successof elections in Iraq last month gives the United States and its allies commonpurpose, Rice said.
Severalcountries committed to help train Iraqi forces and participate in an upcomingNATO training mission after lunch with Rice and NATO Secretary-General Jaap deHoop Scheffer.
“I have tosay that it is the best discussion of Iraq that we have had as an alliancesince the Saddam Hussein regime fell, and, in fact, well before that, becauseit was clearly a unified alliance,” Rice said.
Rice’s tourincluded France and Germany, two of the United States’ strongest critics onIraq, and two of six nations that have refused to participate in a postwar NATOforce there. She also visited Britain, Italy and Poland, all allies in Iraq,and Turkey on the European portion of her trip.
